They Never Learn, for spn_summergen

[summergen-mod.livejournal.com]

Title: They Never Learn
Recipient: spn_summergen
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~3,100
Warnings: None
Summary: Heaven wasn't always full of strong, wrathful soldiers. The angels weren't always obediently doing whatever it was that God commanded. They were, however, always a dysfunctional family.



Let's talk about angels. Pretty big topic, right? A pretty controversial one at that.
So, angels are pretty badass, okay? They're soldiers. Warriors of God, all that good stuff. Ruthless, wrathful. Here to do the work of God.
Wait, hold on a second. Did you say something? You already knew all that?

You've already heard this story before? Huh. Guess I should've known. Hmm.
Well, in that case, I'll bet that you don't want to hear that story again, huh?
To be honest, I don't either. I guess that just means it's up to me to tell you a story you haven't heard then.

Right.

Wait. . .Here, I got it. Let's go back, er, a while, shall we?
Heaven wasn't always full of strong, wrathful soldiers. The angels weren't always obediently doing whatever it was that God commanded. They were, however, always a dysfunctional family.

"Gabriel!!" A voice yelled, echoing. Castiel easily recognized the angry voice.
Here we go again. Castiel thought, rising clumsily to his feet.
The voice was close; he could hear the angry muttering not far from where he was.
Before long, he saw just what he thought he would, for the most part. He recognized the familiar angel standing there. He also recognized the frustrated expression on the angel's face. God knows he's seen it enough times.

What he was not prepared to see, though, were the angel's wings: the feathers a blindingly bright red.

"Balthazar?" Castiel asked, voice small and quiet, like usual. "What happened to your-" Balthazar focused his look on Castiel, making the younger angel stop mid sentence.

"My wings?" Balthazar finished Castiel's question, flicking his strangely colored wings. "Gabriel happened to them." Castiel had figured that much. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened, and those two brothers always seemed to be at the heart of it.

"How about you give me a hand to get my wings back to normal?" Balthazar said, pointing a finger in Castiel's direction.

This resulted in the young angel only able to tilt his head and narrow his eyes.

"You want my help?" Castiel questioned.

"Sure." Balthazar stated simply. "Why not? And, I don't really think any of our other brothers or sisters have any more patience for me or Gabriel."

"I don't think I'll be of too much help." Castiel muttered sheepishly.

"What was that? You'll have to speak up, brother." Balthazar said, taking a step closer to Castiel, who cleared his throat.

"I said, I'm not sure I'll be of top much help." He said, slightly louder this time.

"Really are a rather shy one, aren't you?" Balthazar chuckled quietly, while Castiel looked up at him with his big, blue eyes. "Don't worry. It's nothing hard." Balthazar continued.

"I'm sure Gabriel used some sort of spell. What I'm not sure is what spell, exactly. All I need you to help with is figuring out what kind of spell he used, and how to reverse it. Simple enough, right?" Castiel shrugged. "You seem pretty intelligent, this should be no problem." Balthazar went on.

The two brothers had spent a good deal of time looking for the way to reverse the spell Gabriel had stowed upon Blathazar. Balthazar had seemed fairly impressed by how much the young angel already knew about everything. Castiel had always been eager to soak in new information about that sort of thing, and spent much of his time doing so.
With the two angels' minds turning, they had eventually found the answer easier than Balthazar had thought.
Balthazar had been impressed, and had a new way of looking at this quiet, innocent looking young angel.
As for Castiel, he'd found another reason to look up to the older, stronger angel.
But it wasn't very long until Castiel heard yelling, again.

"Balthazar! Let me out right now!"

"Sorry, brother. No can-do there."

Not again. Castiel rolled his bright blue eyes. He clumsily rose to his feet and started towards the origin of the shouting, which kept on coming.

"Oh, just because dad gave you the fancy title of archangel, you think your just so special. Well look at you now!"

"Balth, seriously, I'm not kidding." Castiel was getting close now; the voices were getting increasingly louder.

"You poor thing!" Castiel saw the source of the noise now.
In the center of the large, empty space, stood a young angel with light hair and caramel brown wings that shown golden, and were now stretched out and twitching with frustration.  He was surrounded by a circle of flames. Holy fire. Doesn't look like Gabriel's going anywhere anytime soon, Castiel thought.

A few yards away, on the other side of the wall of flames, was another figure. This one an angel taller than the first, with smoky grey wings, which he held out, but more at ease. Castiel always caught himself studying other angel's wings. They were all so different, and so unlike his lanky, dark black ones.

"What are you going to do, archangel?" Balthazar chuckled, his wings twitching
in amusement, eyes bright in defiance.

"Don't mess with an angel's wings, Gabriel." Balthazar flashes a smile before turning away from the ring of holy flames, and from Gabriel.

"Don't you leave me here, Balthazar!" Gabriel's protests went ignored.
Castiel remained out of sight as he watched Balthazar amble away. When he was gone, Castiel stepped out from where he was standing and started to slowly head towards the the angel in the circle of fire.

Gabriel was still facing the other direction, his back to Castiel. He was muttering under his breath, and wasn't aware of Castiel's presence at first. Castiel cleared his throat slightly.

At the sound, Gabriel turned his head, and his eyes landed on Castiel. He turned the rest of the way to face the young angel.

"Castiel?" Gabriel was just a little bit older than Balthazar, but wasn't quite as tall as Balth, though he was still considerately taller than little Castiel, at the time.

"What are you doing here, brother?"

"I-uh I heard you and Balthazar-uh-arguing. I came to see what was going on." Castiel said, looking at the floor.

"Lucky for me, then." Gabriel said. "Now, I would be largely grateful if you could put out this holy fire for me. Think you can do that?"

Castiel looked up at Gabriel, who bore a small grin on his face.

"Unless you're going to side with good ole Balthy on this, of course." He added.
Castiel hesitated for a second. Then he smiled up at his older brother, and proceeded to get what he needed to put out the holy fire.


"Castiel."

The voice behind him was soft, but still managed to make Castiel jump a little.
He turned around to where he was face to face with the speaker.

"You really are rather jumpy." She said. 'She' being Anna. A young female angel, younger than both Gabriel and Balthazar, but still older than Castiel. Her big brown eyes studied Castiel's face. Dark brown wings with a barely noticeable red tint were unfolded behind her.

Castiel felt uncomfortable under her steady gaze. "Anna? Is there something you need?"

"Oh, no, Castiel. Not me" Castiel furrowed his brow, waiting for Anna to continue.

"Our superiors have told me to inform you that you are needed."

"For what?" Castiel squinted his eyes, thinking.

"I do not know." Anna said simply. "All I was told was that our Father wanted to get a message to you."

That little conversation with Anna had left Castiel to report to a designated place. wondering what could have caused his Father to need to get him a message.

After walking for a decent amount of time, Castiel found himself close to the location he was supposed to be at. And he could hear voices.

But when he recognized the voices, his confusion only grew.

He was soon standing, right where he was supposed to be. But he wasn't alone.
In front of him, stood Gabriel and Balthazar. They saw Castiel as he entered, and from what he could tell, they looked almost as confused as he felt.

"Castiel?" They both said at the same time.

"Okay, so I was confused before. But now this seems to make even less sense." Balthazar states. "It only doesn't make sense why Father would need to talk to the two of us together, but Castiel too?" He looks back down at Castiel. "I mean, no offense, little guy."

Castiel had a thought. "Perhaps Father wanted to-" The small angel was caught off when there was small noise. Behind Castiel now stood another angel. He was older than the other angels in the room. He is tall and looks strong. He has huge white-gray wings.

"Joshua." The name fell out of Castiel's mouth before he even realized it. This must have been him. One of the few angel's to have actually spoken to their father.

"Young Castiel." The angel acknowledge him, passing his gaze from Castiel to Balthazar and then Gabriel.

"Balthazar." He stated as his gaze passed over the angel with the smoky grey wings. "And Gabriel. Young archangel." Gabriel's gaze softened. All three of the angels held their wings down in respect to the elder angel.

Joshua studied the trio, with his chin up, while they waited desperately for him to continue.

"It seems there has been some certain, disagreement between the two of you, Gabriel and Balthazar. And Father has taken notice." Castiel turn his head to look at the two angels standing behind him. They both exchange a strange look.

"I don't mean interrupt, Joshua, but-" Gabriel says, actually sounding sincerely polite.

"Then I would suggest you didn't, Gabriel." Joshua stated firmly.

Now, Balthazar tried. "Well, sir, I think what Gabriel here was going to say is that him and I, we don't necessarily have truly bad intentions towards one another-"
"It does not matter, the intentions. What matters is that, though you two are young, you are still elder than many of the angels. And Father wouldn't want you two encouraging the younger angels to start arguments, and spend their time pulling off shenanigans towards one another."
Castiel thought that what Joshua was telling them made some sense, though he thought Joshua may have caused it to sound like a larger deal than it truly was, but he didn't try to say anything.

"And it seems that young Castiel here has recently began to form a bad habit of being somehow involved the past couple of times."
Castiel thought to himself. He was here because he had happened to help Balthazar and Gabriel get out of their messes?

Joshua just continued. "Father wanted a way for the two of you to figure out how to work together properly, which is indeed an important lesson you will need, and to also show Castiel how you are supposed to behave, before he gets the wrong idea." The trio all shared the same wide-eyed, confused expressions. Joshua held focused eye contact before continuing.

"Father has decided on a mission for the three of you." Silence. "He wishes you to go to Earth and retrieve something.  That last sentence made probably the least sense of them all. Their Father wanted them to go to Earth? None of them could wrap their head around that one.

"Don't get too excited." Joshua told them while they were sharing glances. "It should be very simple, as long as nothing goes wrong.

"There is a weapon of Heaven that has gone missing. Somehow, a follower of Lucifer had gotten their hands on this weapon and attempted to take it back to Lucifer, but abandoned it somewhere on Earth after he realized he was being followed by a loyal angel. You three are two go to Earth and bring the weapon home. We are already fairly certain of it's location, so you should not have much of a problem there."

Gabriel was the first to speak. "Exactly what kind of weapon is it that we are looking for, Joshua?"

Joshua regarded him before answering. "A horn."

"A horn?"
"Yes. With much significance to you, Gabriel, for you are the one it is designated for. It was created just after you were, and given the title of The Horn of Gabriel."

The young angels all just stood there, mouths gaping. "But keep in mind, there is the possibility that followers of Lucifer may still be in the area, so stay on guard at all times." Joshua said. "Now go. And hurry." And then it all went black.

When the trio's eyes focused, they looking out at a landscape much different from heaven.

Now, I'll spare you some of the details of their hunt. They fell into step together in this foreign place.

I'll spare you some of the details of their search. But after a while of exploring, they heard a noise. All three turned in the direction it was coming from, and they saw them.

"The humans." Castiel muttered, awestruck.

"These are the creatures Father wants us to protect in the future?" Balthazar questioned aloud.

"And also the reason Lucifer was banished to Hell." Gabriel said.
Castiel thought these creatures looked rather extraordinary, but there was also something he admired about them.

They continued their search. The sky was beginning to grow dark before they found it.

"Look, over there." Castiel said, pointing a finger.

There was a huge, beautiful tree. And at the roots, under layers of fallen leaves, something glinted.

The three angels all saw it, and were at the base of the tree in no time. Gabriel reached it first. He dug through the leaves and pulled it out.

It was large, and made of divine gold, but other than that, it looked rather extraordinary. They studied it for a moment.

"I wonder what is so special about it. Looks like a horn to me." Balthazar said.

"I guess Gabriel will find out when the time comes." Castiel said thoughtfully. "It is his weapon, according to Joshua."

Castiel felt Balthazar stiffen next to him, and looked up at him, only to see a panicked look flash across his face.

"Did you hear that?" Balthazar asked, Before the other angels could ask what he meant, they heard it too. Somebody was coming close. Gabriel got to his feet, just as a figure came into view. It had the body of one of those humans, but it's face was horribly disfigured.
"It's one of Lucifer's followers!" Gabriel said. "Demon."

Before the angels knew what was happening, they were being surrounded. "I think it's time to get out of here." Gabriel said, unfolding his caramel brown wings. Balthazar did the same, and Castiel followed.

But the thing is, Castiel was still very young. And he still had yet to completely grow into his lanky wings, and still needed some time to get full control over them. So, Gabriel and Balthazar lifted off gracefully, but Castiel struggled for a moment. And in that moment, the first demon drew close.

And then, Balthazar's hand clasped over Castiel's arm. With just a little help from the older angel, Castiel was able to get off the ground and get his wings under control.
Back in Heaven, word had spread about their little mission. The other angels all had their own questions for the trio.

But it wasn't long before life in Heaven was back to normal. And that meant Castiel went back into his habit of spending a lot of his free time by himself.

One day, however, he happened to hear footsteps coming towards where he sat. They got louder, until Castiel looked up to see Balthazar standing in front of him.

"You look a little down, little buddy." Balthazar said. "You okay?"

Castiel didn't quite meet his eyes. "Yeah. Just thinking."

Balthazar was quiet for a moment. Then, he took a step forward and sat on the floor next to Castiel.

"What are you thinking about?" He asked after he was comfortable.

Castiel didn't answer right away. But he finally said, "Just random things."

They sat in silence for a little while, side by side. Castiel was fine with that.

A good amount of time passed before Balthazar broke the silence. "Must be tough being the youngest, huh?"

Castiel kept his gaze fixed on his hands on his lap while he spoke. "Yeah." He paused for a moment, deciding whether or not he was going to go on. Balthazar was wondering the same thing.

"It's just that, take you and Gabriel for example. Everybody loves you two. You're smart and strong and charming. But nobody pays attention to the youngest."


"Castiel, I assure you, not all of the angels like me. As for you, maybe you just need to put yourself out there a little bit." Balthazar looked at Castiel, who still wasn't looking directly at him. "I mean, don't do anything drastic, but maybe just try to talk  to the rest of us angels, just a little bit. I'm telling you, if the other angels knew how smart you are, they'd probably think of you that much higher. You're probably already smarter than some of them, myself included." Castiel felt strange under all this praise.

There was another couple moments of silence. This time it was Castiel who broke it.

"Am I ever going to grow into my wings?" He said, a hint of a smile on his face. Then both brothers were laughing.

"Sure you are, kiddo." Balthazar said, with another chuckle.

"I hope it's soon." Castiel said. "I mean, I could barely control them to get away from the demons on Earth.

"Hey Castiel, did I tell you about how I wiped out when I was your age?" Balthazar questioned. Castiel shook his head. "I wasn't any older than you, and I managed to get ten feet off the ground, and just completely wiped out. Fell flat on my face." His story strangely made Cas feel better.

"At least you got off the ground." Castiel muttered. They both burst into laughter again.

"Hey, Castiel?" Balthazar said, getting to his feet. Castiel craned his neck to look up at him.  "I've got an idea for another idea for a little prank on our good friend Gabriel. And I could really use a hand from a little brother. What do you think?"
Castiel rose to his feet as well. "Would you be up for that?" Balthazar finished. Castiel nodded, a huge smile on his face.

"Great. Let's get started." They started walking, side by side. Balthazar stretched a wing out and wrapped it protectively around his little brother. Castiel couldn't stop smiling.